Grace Place Serving Center will serve a free, hot meal March 26 from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John's Episcopal Church, 114 N. Union Ave. in Havre de Grace. Phone 410-939-2107 for details. Volunteers will provide the luncheon to anyone who enters in need.

March is frozen food month, National Optimist Month and Women's History Month.

It's not too early to collect those items for the community yard sale, April 27 (raindate April 28). Spaces are available for $10. Contact me for details, 410-939-6562, or the visitor center, 410-939-2100, to be listed as a participant.

"Liberty or death" was proclaimed in March 23, 1775, in a speech by Patrick Henry in a Virginia House of Burgesses meeting in Williamsburg. Responding to the tensions between Great Britain and her American colonies over taxation and colonial administration, Henry exclaimed, "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" In the following month, fighting broke out in New England with armed resistance and rebellion at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

We are nearing the end of Lent, a season to prepare for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, says Pastor Dick Neff, Presbyterian Church of Havre de Grace. Palm Sunday is March 24 followed by Easter March 31.

A Lenten fish fry will be hosted by the Knights of Columbus each Friday during Lent at Good Shepherd School, 800 Aiken Ave., Perryville from 4 to 7 p.m. Eat in or carry out. Come and enjoy good food and good company, 410-642-6265.

The Shamrocks youth group of St. Patrick's Church in Havre de Grace will host an Easter egg hunt March 30 at 10 a.m. (rain or shine) in the church courtyard or school. Please bring individually wrapped candy donations to St. Patrick's Church office on Congress Avenue beforehand.

Since March is National Arts and Crafts Month, attend the Havre de Grace High School music department's arts and craft festival at the school gym, Saturday (March 23) 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with pit beef, music, silent auction and festivities. For details, 443-752-1589. Buy your decorated Easter bonnet there!

On Good Friday, March 29, the Susquehanna Ministerium will sponsor the Good Friday Way of the Cross beginning at Jean Roberts Park, 503 St. John Street (Railroad Bridge) at noon-1 p.m. For details, phone 410-939-2464.

Havre de Grace Parks and Recreation will host its annual Easter egg hunt, March 30 at noon in Tydings Park. Free admission, 410-939-6724.

Brigitte Peters and the Havre de Grace Office of Tourism are pleased with the new 2013 Destination Guide and Calendar of Events for the Havre de Grace Bicentennial of the War of 1812 (May 3, 1813 British attack upon Havre de Grace). Copies are available at the visitor Center, 450 Pennington Avenue, 410-939-2100 or visit http://www.hdgtourism.com. Check the Facebook page "Explore Havre de Grace" – hey, become a member for up-to-date events, etc. and it's free!

Passover, or Pesach, begins March 25. This Jewish observance commemorates the deliverance of the Jews from slavery in Egypt, and marked the beginning of the harvest season. Jewish families gather together for a special dinner, Seder.

Spectacular blooms of cherry tree blossoms can be found in Havre de Grace now like along Fountain Street at the Vandiver Inn. The show of cherry trees in Washington, D.C. has its roots with Eliza R. Scidmore, a writer and photographer, who after a trip to Japan in 1885, suggested to First Lady Helen Herron Taft to plant cherry trees around the Tidal Basin. In 1909, Mrs. William Howard Taft ordered 90 cherry saplings from a Pennsylvania nursery and had them planted along the Potomac River. Then, the city of Tokyo, Japan presented 3,000 more flowering cherry trees in 1912; many planted around the Tidal Basin to be reflected in the water, just as Eliza R. Scidmore had envisioned.

Plant your own cherry tree with Arbor Day coming up or join the Havre de Grace Green Team with the city of Havre de Grace and cultivate a Havre de Grace Community garden. (email: hdggreenteam@gmail.com). Stacy Keysor, 410-939-3323, informed me that interested gardeners may pick up an application at City Hall, 711 Pennington Avenue, 410-939-1800. Each community garden features your own plot, a shared water supply and other common resources and a modest $35 annual fee. Happy gardening all you green thumbs!

Take advantage of our later sunlight hours with the yard work and gardening, but don't forget to smell the flowers, while cleaning around them! Please contact me about your events and happenings at 410-939-6562 or 226 North Union Avenue. See ya!